Sainsbury's techie jailed for loyalty card scam

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An IT manager at Sainsbury's has been jailed for fraud offences connected to the supermarket's Nectar loyalty card scheme.

James Stevenson, 45, from Muswell Hill, London, transferred millions of Nectar loyalty points to accounts which he controlled. Stevenson ran the scheme for years and was caught with points with a theoretical value of almost £80,000.

He was sentenced to 20 months in prison – but will be released on licence after 10 months, the BBC reports. He must also repay £8,120 – the total amount of fraudulent loyalty points he spent on groceries.

The analyst programmer created the accounts in 2003 and 2004, but waited until 2007 and 2008 before using them.